Cardinals melt down in ugly 9th inning against Phillies

The St. Louis Cardinals completely melted down during an ugly 9th inning that cost them Game 1 of their NL Wild Card Series with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the game on a pinch-hit home run by Juan Yepez in the 7th inning. They seemed to have all the momentum heading into the 9th, as the Phillies hadn’t scored all game. But then everything changed.

After striking out Rhys Hoskins to begin the top of the 9th, Ryan Helsley fell apart. Helsley allowed a single and then two walks to load the bases. He then hit Alec Bohm by a pitch to give Philly its first run of the game.

The Cardinals made a pitching switch after that to Andre Pallante, but that didn’t bring much luck.

Pallante promptly allowed a 2-run single to Jean Segura to blow the lead. Add in a run-scoring fielder’s choice, another run scoring on a misplay by Nolan Arenado, and a sac fly by Kyle Schwarber, and the Phillies scored 6 runs before the inning ended.

Phillies were down 2-0 with
1 out in 9th

6 unanswered runs🔥🔥
Most ever by a team trailing going into the ninth in baseball playoff history

Phils take Game 1 with amazing comeback 6-3

Cardinals were 93-0 with 2 run lead or more after 8th inning in their playoff history 😮 pic.twitter.com/DcuWmMVTEd

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) October 7, 2022

Cardinals fans went from thrilled to stunned. The team was two outs away from a 2-0 win, and somehow wound up losing 6-3. They’re playing a best-of-3 series, so the Phillies just need to win one of the next to games to advance.